newsbrief

LAHORE (Staff Reporter): Pak China Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCJCCI) is co-sponsoring a mega event titled as “1st Annual China Mechanical and Electrical Machinery exhibition” scheduled to be held at Lahore Expo centre from September 9-11, 2017. PCJCCI President Wang Zihai said that the trade fair is being jointly organised by e-commerce Gateway Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd and Linyi Trade City China with the extensive support of PCJCCI. He said that the purpose to plan such an exhibition and trade fair is to bring the Chinese companies and Pakistani companies together for mutual cooperation in the relevant fields. He said that this expo is mainly planned by some of the biggest Chinese companies who are seeking for the Pakistani top businessmen to participate in this mega trade fair. He said that PCJCCI has invited more than 250 Chinese companies to participate in this trade fair to exhibit/show case their products for highlighting products’ features and eventually to find JV partners in these key segments of economy.

Rex system mandatory for export to EU countries: TDAP

LAHORE (NNI): The Registered Exporter System (the REX System) is the system of Certificate of Origin of Goods that applies to the Generalised System of Preference (GSP) of the European Union and observance of the same is mandatory for all exporters to the European Union Countries. TDAP consultant Kamal Shahryar stated this while addressing a seminar on REX held at the conference room of Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers and Exporters Associations (North Zone). The seminar was organised under the auspices of TDAP, Lahore. Kamal further said that this system is based on the principle of self certification by economic operators who by themselves will be able to make out “Statements of Origin”. To be eligible to make out the Statement of Origin, an economic operator will have to be registered into the EU data base by TDAP, he said and added that the REX System will progressively and completely replace the current System of Origin Certification based on Certificates of Origin issued by TDAP.

Earlier, in his welcome address, TDAP Director General Riaz Ahmed said that TDAP is endeavouring to support all the business stakeholders in updating their knowledge regarding the latest export criterion to be adopted by the business community to streamline their businesses as per the global trade environment.

He also assured the participants of TDAP’s assistance and guidance towards improving their businesses. It is worth mentioning here that this system will cover all of Pakistan’s exports to the EU countries. It is also notable that Pakistan is required to switch completely to the REX system by the end of 2017. A large number of exporters attended the seminar.

8th round of Pakistan-Thailand FTA talks from 21st

ISLAMABAD (APP): Eighth round of talks between Pakistan and Thailand will be held here from August 21 to 23, 2017 to reach a final decision on Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Both sides had exchanged the offer lists of items for free trade, including automobile and textile sectors for removing the reservations of both sectors, a senior official of Ministry of Commerce told APP here on Wednesday. During the 8th round, he said, talks would be held on the text of agreement, tariff reduction modalities, request lists from both side and offer lists. The FTA would be signed on September 25, for enhancing the bilateral trade between two countries. The official said Thailand had comparative advantage in around 1000 commodities, chiefly electrical and electronic appliances, machinery and components and automobiles and parts. He said, similarly, Pakistan had relative advantages in some 684 commodities including cotton yarn and woven textiles, readymade garments, leather products, surgical instruments and sports goods.

Talking about the FTA with China, the official said negotiations on Phase-II of the FTA with China would be held from September 13 to 14 in China headed by Commerce Secretary Younas Dhaga. He, however, said that Pakistan was desirous to have duty relaxation on 45 products before launching the phase-II.

ISLAMABAD (APP): Pakistan earned $307.943 million by exporting sports goods during the fiscal year 2016-17, official sources said. The earnings from export of sports products dropped 5.17 percent during the period when compared to the exports of $324.738 million during the fiscal year 2015-16, official data revealed. Among the sports products, the exports of footballs decreased 11.7 percent during the period under review. The football exports during July-June (2016-17) were recorded at $152.549 million compared to the exports of $172.901 million during July-June (2015-16), according to data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). However, the exports of gloves surged by 16.02 percent by going up from $92.750 million to $107.608 million, the data revealed. Exports of other sports products decreased by 19.13 percent during FY2017 and declined to $47.786 million from $59.087 million in FY2016. Meanwhile, on year-on-year basis, the exports of sports goods decreased by 1.19 percent in June 2017 when compared to the exports of June 2016.

The sports goods' exports in June 2017 were recorded at $27.176 million compared to the exports of $28.515 million according to the data. During the month, the football exports decreased by 2.78 percent while the exports of gloves increased by 4.8 percent while the exports of all other sports products decreased by 6.81 percent. On month-on-month basis, the exports of sports products increased by 21.69 percent in June 2017 when compared to the exports of $23.153 million in May 2017.

On month on month basis, the exports of footballs increased by 19.31 percent, gloves by 14.54 percent whereas the exports of other sports goods increased by 47.93 percent.